


Language Barrier

by TheWritingFox



Series: The Sparky Chronicles [5]
Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27136198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWritingFox/pseuds/TheWritingFox
Summary: After a trip down some stairs, Sparky can't seem to find the right words.
Series: The Sparky Chronicles [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972690
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	Language Barrier

" _Rollerskate King, he's got them fancy rollershoes"..._

Sparky sings out happily as she skates down a long corridor upstairs in Walter Manor. Being left to her own devices, she had discovered the attic was full of cool stuff. Props from old shows, boxes filled with paperwork, and in one small box, a pair of old timey rollerskates, the kind that clipped onto the skater's shoes. They appeared to be made of iron or steel, very sturdy. To Sparky's delight, they supported her weight perfectly. Years of disuse had made the wheels stick at times, but other wise they were in good condition.

It was probably a bad idea to be skating in the Manor, but it was so much fun! Sparky turns a corner sharply, only to find Matter Master David coming up the opposite corridor, doing his rounds. With a surprised gasp, Sparky swerves to avoid hitting the equally surprised human she's come face to face with. She succeeds but is unable to stop herself in time at the upstair's landing, and topples down the steps.

"Oh my gosh! Sparkster are you ok?!" The blue haired Matter Master asks her, kneeling down to Sparky's level on the floor where she landed.

Aside from her hair being mussed from the trip down and being slightly dazed, nothing seemed to be wrong she notes, taking a quick internal review of herself. She was fine. Nodding her head she says so. The blue haired man blinks at her, as if he didn't understand what she said.

 _"I think I'm ok."_ Sparky repeats.

David looks perplexed then concerned. "Ok, we need to get you checked out. Wait, we're closer to Peter's lab, that may be a better idea, ok?"

" _I'm so sorry David! But I'm ok, really. See? Not even malfunctioning",_ Sparky insists, bending her arms and wiggling her legs to prove the point.

"Sparky, I don't want to alarm you, but you're not speaking English. It sounds a bit like Russian or something" he tells her gently. "Let's take these skates off and get you to Six alright? He'll know what to do." He unbuckles the skates and helps Sparky stand up, then gently takes her hand and leads the way to Peter Walter the Sixth's lab

Not speaking English? That was new. Sparky accesses her language center and re-routes some power to her voice box. 

" _How about now?"_

The Matter Master glances at her as they walk down the corridor, his brow creased in concern. "Uhh, sorry still not English. Sounds kinda like Latin now." Sparky sighs in frustration. 

"Try not to force anything", he suggests, "We don't know if you're badly damaged". Sparky didn't want to give up yet. She tries again.

" _Handbag Da?_ " Wait, that didn't seem right. It was English, but it was as if the words she wanted became jumbled before they left her mouth.

"What? Hang in there Sparky. We're almost there", David soothes.

Worry nags at Sparky as she and David make their way to the lab. She briefly met Peter Walter the Sixth after she came back online for the first time. He told her he'd find as much information as he could regarding Sparky's maker, along with any blueprints on her design. It was still at mystery as to how the crate containing her ended up in an old storage room at the Manor. 

But what if he decided she was too much trouble fix and simply deactivate her? Put her back in a box somewhere and forget about her? Just like her maker...worst of all, she would never see Rabbit or any of the other bots again.

Sparky tries to voice her concerns to the Matter Master with no success. " _Freed? Big badoom am. Bury idolatrine.....Lemons!_ " Her voice distorts at the last word, almost sounding like feedback from a microphone

David winced at the sharp sound and said something comforting to her. Sparky regretted trying to speak, she could've hurt her human friend's ears. 

" _Yacht grass",_ she says quietly in an apologetic tone.

The blue haired man understood. "It's ok, we're here now anyway". They had stopped in front of Peter's lab, he peeks in through the open doorway. "Boss? Good you're here. Sparky needs your help", he says and leads Sparky into the lab. 

"What seems to be the problem?" Six asks with a sigh as he looks up from the latest project he was working on.

"Well, I surprised Sparky earlier and she fell down the stairs" David explains."Her voice box seemed to have been damaged in the process. She's not making any sense when she talks. Show him, Sparks."

" _Ditto juice"_ , she says, glad that he didn't say anything about the skates. " _Feather broom slam"_ , she tries to explain to the keyhole masked Walter.

"Hmm" Six taps the side of his mask in thought. "I found some old designs of you Sparky that might help, but they are rather dated, and there's no signature anywhere on them. But there's something I want to try, if you're okay with it".

Sparky nods, glancing up at him, then keeps her eyes on the floor. Six didn't seem mad about being bothered but she didn't want to push her luck. He guides her over to an empty table and helps her sit up on it then unlatches a small compartment at the base of the little robot's throat. 

"If any of this becomes uncomfortable or hurts, let me know", he tells her before continuing.

It seemed like he turned a dial in the compartment before Sparky felt a slight shock as power was rerouted and it was as if something clicked back into place.

"Alright, try it now", Six says.

"I'm sorry Mister Walter, I didn't mean to bother anyone," Sparky quickly rambles, not letting either of the humans get a word in. "I shouldn't have been messing around in the attic, then I wouldn't have almost ran into Mister Matter Master David. I'm so sorry. Please, please, don't be mad....I don't wanna be deactivated again", she concludes quietly. 

The thought of never seeing her newfound robot family again weighed heavily on her, a fine shower of sparks fell from her ears as a grayish colored liquid, presumably a kind of coolant, dripped from her eyes and plopped down to her lap.

Even with the keyhole mask obscuring his face, Peter Walter the Sixth looked taken aback by the little robot's outburst.

"Sparky, I would never deactivate you or any of the robots in the Manor. That's an extreme I couldn't bring myself to do", he says gently, handing her a clean cloth from his back pocket. "I'm not mad at you", he assures.

"Neither am I, Sparky. There's no harm done." David adds with a smile as Sparky dries her face with the cloth.

"Really?" She asks with a sniffle. The Matter Master nods as Six pats the little robot on the shoulder then helps her off the table.

"It's fine my dear, just try to be more careful in the future, alri--oof", Six is cut off by Sparky's sudden hugging grip around his waist. He hugs back awkwardly, patting her back.

After apologizing again to David and Peter the Sixth, Sparky continues with her day, reassured by the knowledge that the Walter descendant wasn't as scary as she first thought.

Also for future reference, rollerskating in the Manor was *definitely* a bad idea.


End file.
